Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years • Hacker News Board

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#11

Post by digianarchist » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #5

The author’s tweet thread has the key points and documents: https://twitter.com/fulligin/status/1452658640809197569 edit: on top of the problems with Lambda’s offerings, losing 7 out of 9 executives since 2020 is rough: https://twitter.com/fulligin/status/1452658652448362497

Vincent's interview with This Week in Startups on Lambda School is also very interesting despite the weird McCarthyist line of questioning the host goes down.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5hUT8VZNvm8

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#12

Post by 999900000999 » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

>The school recently sent him a letter demanding his banking information so that it could track direct deposits from a job. If he doesn't comply, it threatened to charge him his full tuition of $30,000 regardless of whether he gets a job.

How disgusting. He should probably tell them no. Even if they wrote some non sense allowing this in the income share agreement, let them go to court.

I've never met a successful boot camp grad who didn't already have a four-year degree.

This is a very complicated problem, because you really do have tons of desperate people who are willing to sign their lives away for a shot at getting ahead.

$50,000 is an extremely low threshold, so if someone adds a few extra shifts working at Best Buy lambda school can then leech their meager income?

I'd argue the social experience of traditional college is easily a part of its cost. If you're coming from a bad background you'll surround yourself better people than you met back home.

It's also much easier to get a generic office job with a bachelor's in art history than it is with a ux certificate.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#13

Post by threatofrain » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

Large discussions from this year.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25415017

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26946972

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26802601

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26987632

Interview with Lambda School CEO Austen Allred and Vincent Woo.

https://soundcloud.com/vwoo/interview-with-austen-allred

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#14

Post by mcyc » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

akanet wrote: post #8

Hi I wrote this piece and am perhaps still better known here as the founder of CoderPad, etc. I'm happy to answer any questions throughout the day, so long as they are on-topic and civil.

Hi, thanks for this piece.

I've been following these stories for a while and it seems like a lot of the big players are ridiculously predatory and are providing a catastrophically bad service. I'd like to ask if there are any that you think are actually doing a good job?

One in particular I'm curious about is Hackbright.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#15

Post by devteambravo » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

I come from the failed Lambda School UX program. It wasted more than a year of my life. And to add insult to injury, after having succeeded in learning UX on my own + finding employment, I now send them a mortgage payment's worth of $$$ every month, until I reach that $30k limit. What a damn scam.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#16

Post by paulpauper » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

Go figure. how is this a surprise to anyone . Not just lambda but any of these coding academies, boot camps, etc. It's an open secret that these companies vastly inflate their success rates.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#17

Post by akanet » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

mcyc wrote: post #14

akanet wrote: post #8

Hi I wrote this piece and am perhaps still better known here as the founder of CoderPad, etc. I'm happy to answer any questions throughout the day, so long as they are on-topic and civil.

Hi, thanks for this piece. I've been following these stories for a while and it seems like a lot of the big players are ridiculously predatory and are providing a catastrophically bad service. I'd like to ask if there are any that you think are actually doing a good job? One in particular I'm curious about is Hackbright.

I think Hackbright is doing well, enough so that I recommended that a friend attend recently (and she did). I would look closely at the reporting from each, and interview former students. I think prospective students go along too easily with marketing. A friend and former bootcamp operator told me that students ought to think of picking a school much more like buying a house than picking the best air purifier off of Wirecutter or whatever. I think this is true.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#18

Post by paulpauper » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #12

>The school recently sent him a letter demanding his banking information so that it could track direct deposits from a job. If he doesn't comply, it threatened to charge him his full tuition of $30,000 regardless of whether he gets a job. How disgusting. He should probably tell them no. Even if they wrote some non sense allowing this in the income share agreement, let them go to court. I've never met a successful boo…

After factoring in all these huge fees and other hidden costs, traditional college is a better deal, and the degree is actuality valid credential, instead of a certificate, which is useless in the eyes of most employers. Plus, colleges have tons of financial aid with far less punitive repayment conditions or upfront costs.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#19

Post by whoisjuan » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

In their eagerness to disrupt traditional education, all these programs forgot that the one single thing that makes traditional university education succesful is teaching people with aptitude and drive.

To get accepted and graduate from a reputable university you have to get good results in standardized tests and work your self through multiple courses for at least 3 years. That by itself doesn't mean anything but there's a level of rigor and self-drive required to succesfully traverse this experience.

I mentored in one of these bootcamp programs and you would be surprised how little people give a shit, even though they are paying. Most of them know that the job placement guarantee is a safeguard for their own laziness.

These programs accept people who think pursing a career in tech would be cool and easy until they realize is a tough learning experience and a tough job. Perhaps tougher than anything else they have done in their lives.

The problem with these companies is that they have to balance the quality of students with the quantity required to meet scale. This is probably the worst type of VC backed business because the investor expectations on scale are in direct conflict with the quality of potential students pre-bootcamp and the demanded quality by employers post-bootcamp.

Re: Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years

#20

Post by temp8964 » Mon, Oct 25, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #12

>The school recently sent him a letter demanding his banking information so that it could track direct deposits from a job. If he doesn't comply, it threatened to charge him his full tuition of $30,000 regardless of whether he gets a job. How disgusting. He should probably tell them no. Even if they wrote some non sense allowing this in the income share agreement, let them go to court. I've never met a successful boo…

Can you explain why is this disgusting? Why the income share agreement is non sense?